Protection officer accused of exposure and upskirting on public transport
A diplomatic protection officer accused of upskirting on public transport and exposing himself has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Christopher Herd, 48, a former sergeant in specialist operations with the Metropolitan Police, is accused of four offences in Essex over six months last year.
Herd, who resigned from the force in March, is charged with one count of exposure in Manningtree in July last year, and three counts of recording an image under clothing without consent between March and August 2024 in Clacton-on-Sea.
The Met, which has confirmed he worked for its parliamentary and diplomatic protection branch, said the alleged upskirting offences took place on public transport while Herd was on and off duty.
Appearing at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Friday, he confirmed his name, address and date of birth and pleaded not guilty to each of the charges.
Herd wore a striped tie and black suit during the 10-minute hearing, during which prosecutors said the fact he was a police officer 'aggravates the offence'.
Crown Court trial
Asked which court he would prefer be tried in, Herd said: 'I would like to elect a crown court hearing please.'
He will go on trial in June at Chelmsford Crown Court and he has been released on conditional bail.
Deputy District Judge Jennifer Twite said his bail conditions included not being allowed to go on public transport unaccompanied and not contacting anyone under the age of 18 except his own children.
He is also banned from deleting any photos or videos without the consent of police or from recording anyone in a public place.
The Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday that Herd had been charged in April with a number of sexual offences following an investigation by officers in Essex.
The force said he worked in Special Operations, but later confirmed he was attached to the parliamentary and diplomatic protection branch.
Herd was arrested by Essex Police in August 2024 on suspicion of indecent exposure, which is alleged to have taken place while off duty.
Following further enquiries, he was arrested again on suspicion of upskirting.
The alleged offences are also said to have happened both when he was on and off duty while travelling on public transport.
Following his arrest, he was suspended, and he resigned on March 1. The Met's Directorate of Professional Standards is aware of the case.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Met Police funding fears: Warning half of buildings could close
A large section of the ceiling is missing in one of the women's bathrooms at Shoreditch police station. Some of it is now sitting in a crate on the floor."We had a leak from the toilet system on the floor above," explains David Mathieson, the Metropolitan Police's director of real estate development, pointing out how the sewage water has seeped into the carpet next to the lockers."The systems are just so old, we keep patch repairing them, but they need to be ripped out and replaced."He's showing us around the station to illustrate the problems, after Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warned the Met faces having to close buildings and lose 1,700 officers and staff due to a £260m budget shortfall. 'Austerity scar tissue' In a report presented to the London Policing Board last month, Sir Mark said that, unless the Met received more money in the government's Spending Review on Wednesday, London could experience "sustained increases" in knife crime, violence against women and girls, and warned this meant the government's key pledges to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls in a decade, and to boost neighbourhood policing, were also at Mark added that the Met would be forced to close up to half of its buildings over the next decade "due to them being no longer habitable or legally compliant".In November, the commissioner warned the Met faced "eye-watering cuts" to services and a £450m funding gap, although he's since acknowledged that extra funding from the Home Office and City Hall means its final settlement is "nearly £100m better" than last week, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that police forces across the country were carrying the "scar tissue of years of austerity cuts" and said they needed more money to meet government ambitions on policing. The government has promised thousands of neighbourhood police officers and nearly 400 police community support officers will be recruited for forces in England and Wales over the next 12 months, as part of the target to hit 13,000 by London has asked repeatedly for an interview with Sir Mark ahead of the Spending Review and has approached the Home Office for comment."You'd normally refurbish a building every 25 years," Mr Mathieson tells me. "Our budget is now once every 125 years."The Met says it's already shrunk from 620 buildings in 2010 down to 260, in order to find money for front-line police station closed to the public in 2017, when London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said government cuts meant he had no choice but to make although the shutters are down, the building is still operational, as a base for the Hackney Safer Neighbourhood team and as a training facility for officers learning to use Tasers. Mr Mathieson takes us on a grim tour, pointing out how the sewage leak has gone right through the building, into the instructors' lockers on the lower floors - now replaced by a red bucket - the missing ceiling panels along the corridor, and the single boiler providing heat and hot water."We should have two but we didn't have the budget," he tells us, adding that the building will have to close completely if the boiler tells me that four defunct boilers - which he thinks date back to the 1960s when the station was built - have been kept so they can "cannibalise them for parts around the other bits of the estates".The upstairs women's bathroom, which was flooded in March, remains out of order, with parts of the ceiling taken down simply to make the building across the corridor, on the back of the locker-room door, is a poster encouraging officers to "take pride in your workplace". In April, the Met detailed a list of savings it would need to make in order to protect front-line services such as neighbourhood policing and public protection teams, which tackle sex offences and domestic plans include scrapping the Royal Parks Police and Safer Schools officers, along with cuts to forensics and mounted police and potentially taking firearms off the Flying commissioner has said he wants the force to grow in size to 38,000 officers and 19,000 civilian staff, but said the Met was expected to have just 31,248 officers and 10,972 staff by the end of the predicts the force will lose about 1,700 officers, PCSOs and staff, but that additional funding may allow the force to reduce the losses by speeding up recruitment. 'It's really cold in the winter' In the face of protecting front-line services, it might make sense that refurbishing buildings is less of a priority, but Mr Mathieson tells me it's clear that it's having a terrible impact on officer morale. "The quality of the space you live and work in is absolutely intrinsic to your sense of self worth... your sense of being valued," he opens another door, revealing a locker room with peeling paint and stained flooring."Imagine this is your first day as a Met officer, and you're being asked to get changed in here." Insp Ryan Rose, who works on Taser training, agrees, telling me that thousands of students pass through the base and often comment on the poor conditions. We watch as some trainees line up in front of us on the indoor target range, and an instructor tells the group to "listen, react, engage," before they fire."One of the core principles of Taser training is we try and instil professionalism in how you handle the weapon," Insp Rose explains, "and we are doing that in a very non-professional environment."It's really cold in the winter, it's really hot in the summer."He says the students are currently having to go to another part of the building to find working toilets, which is disruptive."It slows down the training... leaks on the range and leaks in the toilets... sometimes we need to shut down training." "The perfect thing to do with this building is to completely gut it and start again," says Mr Mathieson. "It needs a complete, thorough refurbishment, but that will probably cost £30m, and that means we can't spend £30m on any of the 259 other buildings in the rest of the estate."I'm always having to judge where are the biggest, most critical problems and put the funding into those." Technology Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that police forces are being given £1 billion extra funding this year, and said other public services were struggling "because of the inheritance that we had as a country and as a government." "We expect the police to start embracing the change they need to do, to do their bit for change as well. We are doing our bit," he said. A spokesperson for the mayor of London said the previous Conservative government had "chronically underfunded the Met"."Sadiq has done everything in his power to support the police and recently announced record £1.16bn investment for the Met to protect neighbourhood policing in our communities, secure 935 front-line police officer posts and significantly reduce the level of cuts the Met had been planning."
Scotsman
3 hours ago
- Scotsman
Serial thief ram-raided shop during burglary spree
This video More videos Dramatic footage captures the moment a ram-raiding burglar used a stolen van to smash into a shop and steal thousands of pounds worth of cash, cigarettes, and alcohol. Keep up with the latest new videos with the Shots! Newsletter. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Watch the moment (click to play above) when a burglar smashes into a shop front and walks away with a stash of cigarettes and booze. Stolen van Kayne Palmer entered a home gaining access via a window, before swiping the keys to a work van and stealing a handbag and a bank card. The 33-year-old then used the stolen van to reverse at speed into the shop front. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Kayne Palmer ram raided a shop with stolen van | notts police Once inside the store, Palmer went behind the till and tried to load a bag with cigarettes and drink. Realising the bag had a hole in it, Palmer returned with a shopping basket to collect the goods. Ram-raid He also removed a till and put it in the van before fleeing the scene. The frightened shop owners were inside the building at the time of the ram-raid and were woken by the loud bang of the van smashing into the store. They called the police but by the time they got downstairs Palmer had gone. Having caused thousands of pounds worth of damage, Palmer made his escape with £7,897 of cigarettes and alcohol and £3,239 of cash. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Serial thief ram-raided shop during burglary spree | Notts Police Palmer also carried out five burglaries – in Bestwood, Old Basford, and Arnold – and an attempted burglary at another home in Old Basford during a 24-hour spree on 7 November 2023. Serial burglar jailed After all his crimes had come to light, Palmer was charged with eight burglaries, aggravated vehicle taking, multiple counts of dangerous driving, attempted burglary, conspiring to steal motor vehicles, assault, theft, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance. Having pleaded guilty to each of these offences, Palmer appeared before Nottingham Crown Court today (6 June), where he was jailed for seven years.
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Scotland Yard chief Sir Ian Blair 'realised we had a disaster on our hands' just five minutes after he called the De Menezes shooting investigation 'fantastic'. Our gripping account of one of Britain's most shocking police blunders continues...
At Stockwell Tube station in south London, Metropolitan Police firearms officers were congratulating themselves on a job well done. They believed they'd just shot dead a failed al-Qaeda suicide bomber, Hussain Osman. His body lay slumped in a seat on a stationary Northern Line train at platform two, his denim jeans and jacket covered in blood. Fearing that he was carrying a device, the officers withdrew to the central hub of the Underground station and called in an explosives officer to check and make the scene safe.
